Top fuel dragster cars have been there for decades now, but still, not everyone knows them well. Auto racing has been there since the 1800s after the gas-powered internal combustion engine was invented.
Automobile racing took various forms, and by 1930, drag racing emerged as a new form of sport. Drag racing and hot rods became synonymous for years leading its popularity to higher heights.
Then the top fuel dragsters came into being with fire-spewing and high horsepower automotive powerhouses.
The dragsters are now among the fastest racing cars around the globe, often termed the sports kings. The dragster’s speed has been contributed by various technological improvements and years of engineering.
Top dragster cars are meant to go faster thanks to the massive power. This is a perfect car for the quickest rides on four wheels. But how much horsepower do fuel dragsters have?
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So, how much horsepower do top fuel dragsters have?
Top fuel dragsters are among the world’s fastest accelerating cars hence referred to as kings of sports. The cars can cover the dragstrip in seconds and at more than 330mph.
Top fuel dragsters are by a fuel-injected five hundred cubic inch adaptation and supercharged of the famed Chrysler Hemi engines. These cars can burn up to fifteen gallons of nitromethane fuel in a single run.
Moreover, these cars are made of carbon fiber composite and Chromoly steel tubing and weigh about 2330 pounds. Top fuel dragsters have their engine power ability at 11 000 horsepower.
Engine specs of top fuel dragsters
Top fuel dragsters from NHRA are the fastest accelerating world cars. The cars can accelerate from 0 -60mph in half a second. Lightweight dragsters can cover quarter miles in four seconds while attaining a speed of 335mph.
Dragsters are the most recognizable and famous class of sports cars known worldwide. The car’s engines work under stressful situations that need to be rebuilt after every run.
The dragster can move to 11 200 mph and produce NOx since it is supercharged and features a custom 500 cubic inch engine. The engine has a popular powerplant of about 750o0- 8,000 horsepower crate engine version of the Chrysler 426 cubic inch and a ninety degree V-8 Hemi.
The engine comprises specialized and aftermarket components and can be bored out to 500 cubic inches maximum displacement.
The engine is made from aluminum, with connecting rods and cylinder heads carved from aluminum billets. The rockers and oversized springs, retainers, and valve covers are machined from titanium.
Moreover, the engine’s five-bearing crankshaft and camshaft are billet carbon steel.
Technical information
A typical top fuel dragster engine can displace about 496 cubic inches. The engine features a hemispherical combustion chamber cylinder head.
The stroke and the bore measure 4.310 by 4.25 inches and have a compression ratio of between 7:1 and 6.5:1. The dragster engine redlines at an rpm of 8250. The engine’s intake valve measures 2.5 inches, with its exhaust valve measuring 1.92 inches.
The engine’s roller lifters have a diameter of 1.68 and a valve lift measuring 8. The engine ignites by a dual ampere of 50 000-volt magnetos.
The engine also uses forty-two mechanical fuel injectors featuring a mechanical fuel pump with a capacity of pumping 100 gallons of fuel per minute. The massive amount of fuel and air mixture that passes through the engine cools the engine.
Supercharger
The engines have a 14 to 71 roots style blower featuring 65 pounds as its maximum manifold pressure. The engine takes about 900-1000 crankshaft to run the supercharger. The blower’s roster features a speed of 3750 cubic feet of air per minute.
Is anything faster than a top-fuel dragster?
No car is faster than a top-fuel dragster because of its narrow, lightweight bodies and high horsepower. The cars can reach over 280 mph within 600 feet and so can go faster even than fighter and jumbo jets.
Dragsters can accelerate from zero to 100 mph in less than 0.8n seconds and can go beyond 297 mph in 660 feet.
How much does a top fuel dragster cost?
The price of buying a dragster car can vary from one manufacturer to another and if the car is new or second-hand. But on average, it costs about $500 000 to buy a completely new car. To run a top fuel dragster per run can cost about $8000 to $10000 in a single run.
What is the Gforce of a top fuel dragster?
The dragsters should accelerate over 4 G on average to enable it to exceed 300 mph in four seconds. For the dragster to attain a 200 MPH before half-track, the launch acceleration gets to 8 G’s.
The top fuel dragster engines can approximately revolve about 480 times. According to most top fuel racers, the car can reach five Gs or a gravitational force five times their body weight.
However, the horsepower widely varies, but on average is around 8000 HP and attains a 6G acceleration from zero acceleration.
What is the common horsepower in dragsters?
The most common top fuel dragster horsepower is 11 000 horsepower which makes these dragsters popular.
What rpm does the top fuel dragster have?
A top fuel dragster features an rpm of 300 when idle. Moreover, its redline lies at a high rpm of 9500. The top fuel engines can turn for about 540 revolutions, including burnout; the motor can survive up to 900 revolutions.
Conclusion
Fuel dragsters are the fastest-moving cars ever in the world and the quickest sanctioned category of sports racing. The fastest competitors that use dragsters can reach 335 miles per hour while completing a thousand-foot run in 3.62 seconds.
The car can accelerate from zero to 100 mph in 0.8 seconds. Due to its high speeds, the car can only run for 1000 miles. The car uses a second-generation Chrysler Hemi made of specialized parts.
The engine has a basic configuration with dual valves activated by pushrods. The cars can produce a horsepower of 11.000.
